Ice Damming in Stouffvile

This is another story about how not cleaning your eavestroughs can lead to more serious and costly problems for homeowners.

We were called to this home in Stouffville when the gutters detached themselves from the roof and took part of the fascia board with them. What a mess!

This is what can happen when your eavestroughs are not cleaned before winter and water freezes in them. Over time, the weight becomes too much and if not attached properly, they will break away and come down cause serious damage to your home.

This home had 5″ gutters with an Alu-Rex leaf guard system, which is the same one we install. It’s a good system, but what most people don’t know is that you still have to clean your eavestroughs even though you have a leaf guard system attached. If the gutters are not graded properly, like these were, the water will not flow properly and will just sit in your trough. And when leaves stay stuck to the top of the leaf guard, they will freeze over when winter comes around, and start to form an ice build-up on the top of your trough. Now add this to the water that is frozen inside the trough, and it’s a recipe for a disaster just like this.

The weight was just too much for the little screws to hold the trough properly over the winter. As you can see, it also took pieces of shingles off the roof, which caused even more damage!

They only had small nails holding the fascia board instead of 3″ screws going into the rafter tail ends. It was a combination of a lot of things that caused the eaves to fall, but most of it could have been prevented had they had their eavestroughs cleaned just before winter. I usually recommend that you get them cleaned twice a year if you are in an area where leaves and debris can accummulate over the course of a couple of months.

True North Eavestroughing installs new eavestroughs and gutter in the following areas:

I was called to this home in Port Perry back in 2012. At the time I explained to the homeowner that they needed to replace their eavestroughs as they were poorly graded and the downspouts were in the wrong locations. I made this recommendation even … [Read More...]

Using a level is one of the highest priorities we do when installing gutters.
We always use a level. Period.
You cannot have proper functioning eavestroughs without being level. You cannot eye up the proper slope for eavestroughing. Using a … [Read More...]